A Robot Is Scheduled to Testify in Front of the UK Parliament

Expert Witness

Please Rise

The appointment, first spotted by the U.K. publication TES, will occur during an inquiry on the “fourth industrial revolution,” a loose term technologists use to refer to technology that blends physical, biological, and digital components. Pepper is the last witness after a selection of academics, roboticists, and computer scientists.

According to the BBC, this will be the first time a robot has appeared before British lawmakers. But Robert Halfon, the chair of the committee that will hear from Pepper, struggled to explain the point of the robot testimony.

“This is not about someone bringing an electronic toy robot and doing a demonstration, it’s about showing the potential of robotics and artificial intelligence and the impact it has on skills,” he told TES.

Pepper Spray

We’ve written previously about Pepper, a line of robots created by Japan’s SoftBank Robotics. The robot has limited conversational ability and can interpret and respond to emotions.

Log In

UsernamePassword

Remember Me

What We’re About

Scientific literacy is more important than popular culture literacy, but the vast majority of people have it backwards. We're here to increase the number of voices shouting in the wilderness by a couple. We don't market, we don't spam and we don't push content on you. We just want you to read and watch the best scientific content we can find.